


The Lights

by kangelique



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fourth of July, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-30 03:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15088397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangelique/pseuds/kangelique
Summary: Short write in which Emma, Killian, Regina, Henry, David and Mary Margaret witness a fireworks display while being stuck on the road on their way back to Storybrooke.





	The Lights

**Author's Note:**

> A 4th of July special, and not really in any particular point of view, simply them. Hope you like it! And happy 4th of July!!!! WHO ELSE ENJOYS THE FIREWORKS?

The Lights.

" _Careful_ , Regina." Killian warns while keeping his palm gently placed on Emma's bump, as if protecting their unborn child and its mother at the same time by circling his arm around her shoulder to land his one hand on her right arm and press her closer to his chest when the vehicle goes over a pothole, shaking them unsteady as Regina glares at him through the rear view mirror and then swirls the bug a little to avoid another.

"I don't get why everyone insisted we take this car," Regina grumbles at them, causing Henry next to her in the passenger seat to let out a 'Mooooooom' in return. "What,Henry? It's true, and do any of you realize how dangerous it is to be driving this beat up thing on the road when we could have taken mine? I just--"

"Should have stopped by for food," David mutters from the backseat, head against the window, arms crossed to his chest and eyes closed apparently trying to sleep.

Regina scoffs, "What is  **that** supposed to mean? Are you assuming I'm cranky because I haven't eaten? Because I can easily make some Mcdonalds appear on your laps, if that's what you want."

"Those burgers are bloody horrendous," Killian scrunched up his nose to that, drawing back at the remembrance of the foul taste in his mouth from when he had first tried it with them.

Emma chuckled softly; The air coming out from her mouth from where she had her face pressed against his shirt sent warmth to his skin, and he looked down at her with a loving smile, giving her cheek a slow caress with his fingers as far as his arm around her could let his hand reach. "Tell me you didn't eat that when it was just you and Henry, love, "

"It's not that bad, Killian," Emma quietly protested, eyes still closed.

"Mmm...perhaps not,"  Pressing his lips to her forehead in a small peck, she smiled.

Regina groaned at them in good nature, rolling her eyes when Killian sent her a smirk. "I don't know which one of you became the most hormonal with that pregnancy."

"Obviously me, your majesty," Emma mumbled, voice seeming more awake.

"Yeah that's up for debate, Miss Swan."

"It's Jones now," Killian happily corrected.

"Maybe I should drive," Henry suggested, and Regina snapped her head to him, mouth agape, looking offended.

"What, I'm doing fine!"

"It's good practice for driving to college, mom," Henry says, giving her a smile as Regina stiffens slightly at the fact that her once little boy was going away to college in just a few months.

"Ah, smooth play,lad, wanting to drive his girlfriend around," Killian bobbed his head approvingly and with a tint of pride while Emma pinched his thigh and he only responded by chuckling and pressing another kiss to her forehead.

Henry blushed at the implication of Violet.

"Not a chance," Regina grumbled.

"Learned from the best," Killian quipped with a wide grin and Regina could see one side of Henry's mouth itching upward.

"What have you two been--"

The bug suddenly jolted forward, causing Emma and David to snap their eyes open and Mary Margaret to burst out a shriek when it threw them all and almost caused little Neal in her arms to fall forward as she and David desperately moved to grasps his legs to fix him upright.

"Regina!"

"Bloody hell!"

"Oh, that didn't feel nice..."

"What was that?!"

Hitting the brake with a little too much force, the car came to a violent screeching halt downward, shaking them around the way a dog does with their toys between their teeth, before leaving them slightly tilted to the side as Regina gathered her air again, shifted the car to park, and then opened her door to get out and walk over to Henry's side to look at what had happened.

Killian opened his door and David rolled down his window to poke his head out just as Regina muttered a "Dammit" under her breath, clenching her hair into her fists for a second before dropping her hands down and taking the few steps back to her side.

"What happened, Regina?," Emma asks.

Regina sighs, pursing her lips, "Flat tire."

David decides to step out then, Henry following his grandpa, and Killian takes a couple minutes to help a grumbling Emma out by supporting her weight as she pushes herself up and practically falls into him thanks to the swollenness of her feet that immediately make her wince but either way he helps her waddle over to where Regina and David are now inspecting the tire in the dark, suppressing a smile at the adorableness of her penguin-like walk.

"What's so funny?," Emma snaps noticing his smile, and he knows she's gone into a mood swing.

He tilts his head to the side, bringing his lips down, right behind her ear as he whispers, voice turning low, and nose managing to remove a bit of her hair away enough for him to caress her skin, breathing her smell in. "You're just like a penguin, my love, that's all."

She visibly softens under his touch. "And?"

"And I love it."

She grins up at him and he responds the same way.

"Okay, so how do we fix this?," David finally asks, running a hand over his face just as Emma and Killian join them. "sweetie, do you have a--"

"No spare," Emma confirms.

Regina sighs heavily while holding her phone in the air, shaking it up higher as far as her arm could go and squinting up at the screen but coming down with nothing. "No signal. Not even two bars; We can't call anyone to come pick us up."

"How much farther is it?," Killian asks, looking over to the road still stretching ahead of them and not a single soul seen on either sides of them.

"I'm not walking."

"Doesn't matter, mom won't be able to make it all the way anyway," Henry motioned with a hand to his pregnant mother.

"I can carry her," Killian suggests with his hook coming to rest behind her back.

Emma just looks at him, skeptical. "You're not serious," she narrows her eyes and he merely encourages her with a nod except the smirk grazing his lips make it hard to decipher him. "I packed up a lot of weight, Killian, I could only end up breaking your back before we're even halfway there."

He looks down at her, arching an eyebrow and a mischievous glint in his eye. "Then I guess you'll have to fix it once we get back home, love."

Regina groans, "Oh come on, nobody wants to know about your sex life. We get it. She breaks your back often, yay." 

Emma feels her cheeks heat up--forever grateful for the cover of the darkness--as Killian turns to hide his face in her hair when David chokes out a 'What?' and then tries to cover it with a cough.

Regina smirks at their reactions, getting the little dig she wanted.

Meanwhile Henry is only shaking his head.

"David, honey, we talked about this!," Mary Margaret bellows out from inside the car, and David turns to point a finger at her, suddenly very exasperated.

"No, we didn't, Mary Margaret!"

Emma gawks, "Talked about what?"

"Your father--"

"SNOW!"

At this point, Killian's laughter is rumbling his chest as he shakes his head against Emma's hair, and she dryly tries to chuckle along with him, still confused, while Regina keeps her lips tight together to suppress a smile and Henry tries to do the same but failing, instead turning away as Mary Margaret's soft chuckle comes to echo outside, finally pushing David to break out in laughter in his embarrassment.

Regina clears her throat," Alright. Tire. Plan. We need to fix it, and since we can't call anyone, we need to get the replacement one ourselves."

"And just where will get that in the middle of the bloody road? It's not like Zeus himself will decide to throw us one down from the heavens...WAIT--"

Cutting him off, Regina turns to David. "I saw a small tire department a few miles back; It should be two hours at the most, you and Hook get the new one and haul it back here."

David nods in understanding and then turns to wave Killian forward, "Okay. Let's go, Hook."

"Can I go?," Henry asks.

"Of course, lad."

Emma nods and Regina tilts her head down with a small smile of approval. Henry skips over to David's side--reminding the two moms far too much of the little boy that's grown far too fast before their eyes--and Killian detaches himself from Emma, stepping away only after giving her a soft kiss to her cheek and she responding by leaning into it and then turning her head up to give him a quick soft kiss to his cheek as well.

As they begin their walk, Killian grumbles, "This is why i'd rather sail..."

 

* * *

 

 

"Are you alright, Emma?"

Emma looks up to see Regina coming to walk towards her with her hands in her pants pockets, a furrow concerning her forehead and the slight hint of panic in her dark brown eyes when Emma heaves a sigh, taking her hand away from her belly and nodding tiredly.

"Yeah, just a bit hungry; This baby eats a ton."

"Oh."

It seems to help ease Regina up, knowing she isn't about to have the baby in the middle of right now.

They both stood in silence for a few minutes--a comfortable silence--just staring off into the open field of dark that was behind their backs and in front their eyes with only the road as separation, hearing Mary Margaret's quiet chatter to Neal when the sound of the 3 year old's laughter echoes from inside the bug.

Regina smiles in that direction, and then cautiously asks, "Was it like that with Henry?"

"Was what like what?"

She smirks, "The eating a lot."

Emma laughs and then sighs, remembering. "No. It was really different. He was picky, I think, because every time I walked into the jail lunchroom I would get the urge to vomit the minute I walked in there with just the smell of the food. This one, though, " she pats her belly, " is constantly hungry. It gives me a good excuse to get Hook to get me grilled cheese sandwiches from Granny's everyday, so that's actually a perk."

Regina chuckles at her softly, and then her voice turns serious when she quietly admits: "I'm scared to see him go."

She is too.

Putting a hand to her arm and squeezing it to show her understanding, Emma says, "I know. But he's strong, and smart, and has such a great heart. He'll get through. He brought us all together. And in the inside, he'll still always be our little boy. He knows that."

Regina releases a breathy laugh, quickly swiping at the corners of her eyes before clearing her throat, turning her head to look at her. "You really do think so, Emma?"

Emma nods, smiling, and sniffing back a few tears of her own. "I do."

"Moms!"

Henry's shout comes from a distance and both Emma and Regina turn to see him run the rest of the remaining stretch to them while waving what appeared to be a brown paper bag in the air; Behind him, they see David and Killian struggling to roll a big round black tire down the road, panting as they go in the summer heat, stopping every few gained paces to restock their breath while swiping at their foreheads.

"Here,mom," Henry holds the paper bag up for Emma, and she takes it with a raised eyebrow. He only shrugs. "Killian figured you were having cravings."

It makes Emma's smile grow all the more when the content inside reveals itself to be one simple, pink frosted chocolate cupcake.

_Smart damn pirate,_ Emma thinks as Regina pulls Henry in to give him a kiss on the forehead, and Henry just laughs, slightly protesting at the unexpected affection but Emma understands Regina's need for it.

Killian and David finally arrive to where they're standing, happily letting the tire drop to the ground.

"Bloody hell," Killian pants. "That was a dreadful walk."

Regina regards the tire. "Why did you just let it fall, we still need to switch it."

'Oh," Killian drawls out, grimacing. " **That** was your plan."

Regina's arms cross, "Yeah why?"

"Because none of us know how to change a tire, Regina," David informs her with a sigh.

"I do!"

All their heads turn to Mary Margaret's sudden chirp from inside the car.

"There," Regina smirks. "Problem solved."

"When did you learn how to change a tire?," David wonders when she passes Neal over to his arms, climbing out of the car just as she pushes her sleeves up to her elbows.

"Yeah,mom,when..."

Mary Margaret simply looks at David, "We have an old truck, honey."

"Hm" is David's only response as Mary Margaret drops down on the ground and gets to work on replacing the tire while trying to assist her as best he can with providing the little amount of light he could with his phone. Regina walks a few feet away from the bug with Henry, and Emma watches them fondly as Killian comes to stand beside her.

Leaning her lips up to his ear, she whispers,"Thank you for the cupcake."

He grins back down at her, "Anything for you,my love," and then placing his hand over her belly, caressing it with his thumb, "anything for the both of you."

Emma smiles, putting her hand on top of his, waiting until their eyes met for her to mouth 'I love you'.

"As do I, Mrs.Jones."

Little Neal's clap at the sudden burst of color in the sky is what startled everyone's attention upwards.

Killian immediately went into a panic, slinging his arm around Emma's shoulder to pull her into his chest while cradling her head into the crook of his neck as her hair fell forward, and he used his body to cover her belly bump and most of hers. "Don't move,Emma, It's alright,love, I won't let them hurt our baby, Dav--"

Another burst of color broke out in the sky, and Emma only laughed, easing off Killian's protective stance to take a hold of his hand instead.

"No, it's okay, they're just--"

"Fireworks," David breathed out, eyes held captive by the continuous burst of red, green, white, and blue not too far in the distance from where he and Killian had returned from.

"Yeah," Emma laughed again as she heard Henry and Regina's soft chuckles from behind her, and Mary Margaret stood up to go into the waiting arm of her prince while their son excitedly pointed up.

Killian's breath was blown away by the sight as numerous amounts of color erupted against each other all at once, breaking apart as their pieces fell back down and then disappeared in a silent fade before more came up to take their place, exploding and exploding again as the "Whoosh" of them racing up filled their ears, and for a moment they all just stood there, mesmerized by the break off of light as it fell back to the earth's ground in a brilliant remaining sparkle for their eyes to soak in and sound hit their face like in a flash of sudden life and coming air, startling and expecting in the best way.

"They're beautiful, Emma," Killian could only say in awe.

In that moment, there was a small blow to Emma's stomach. And then another with much more force. It made her eyes widen when the sudden movement inside of her almost threw her forward a little in surprise, and then she turned to Killian, tugging his hand to her bump without explanation and waiting in giddiness in her foot for him to feel it too, getting the desired effect when she meets his eyes and he has a full out grin threatening to break his entire face because of the size of it.

"I think she likes the explosive light things."

"Yeah," Emma nods, laughing.

They turn their gazes back to the sky, and Regina breathes in, closing her eyes and opening them again to fully appreciate the sight before her; For once not afraid to take in the light.

"I love you, mom." Henry smiles next to her; now her same height.

"I love you too, Henry." She smiles back, putting an arm around his shoulder to then rest her cheek atop his head.

A few more minutes in, Mary Margaret turns to them still in David embrace. "The car's ready."

So that's how they drove home. With the fireworks still exploding behind them as they cast glances back, only turning their heads forward when their sight and sound of them faded away, and then crossing the town line, knowing there was more light awaiting there as soon as they were taken in by their familiar woods.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!!!


End file.
